The reason behind Liverpool’s lack of a penalty for Martin Odegaard’s “atypical” handball
However, the ball appeared to strike Odegaard’s hand in the area, and the Reds were upset when referee Chris Kavanagh did not award them a penalty kick in the first half.
When Gary Neville was doing commentary for Sky Sports, he thought that Odegaard was “lucky” to have lost his footing, whereas Jamie Carragher thought it was a given.
“I believe Liverpool was awarded a penalty,” remarked Carragher, a fellow pundit. “Odegaard, he was extremely lucky.” The VAR is quite unlikely to overturn the decision if the referee doesn’t grant it.
“The penalty situation is a weird situation,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told the BBC following the game, characterizing the occurrence as “weird.”
“You look at it, and I’m not sure how you can say it’s not a penalty,” said the referee, who may not be able to see it.
“I’m pretty sure someone will explain it to me and tell me it’s not a handball, but I don’t know how,” Klopp continued in an apparent jab at VAR official David Coote while speaking to Sky Sports.
I don’t claim that the referee can see it as I’m not sure where he was at the time.
But how can a man working in an office see that and not conclude that perhaps, just maybe, it would be worthwhile for the referee to take a second look?
“Odegaard’s arm is moving towards the body and not the ball as he goes down,” according to the PGMOL, which is why no penalty was given, according to Sky Sports. “I think he may just slip there,” Neville continued as he saw a replay of the incident.
His left arm falls because his right leg is giving way. That’s what saves him, I believe. It’s possible that he puts his arm down in an attempt to regain balance when his foot gives way, saving himself. His hand returns in unison as a counterbalance because he slips.
According to the FA handbook on the Laws of the Game, “a player commits an offence if they intentionally touch the ball with their hand or arm, such as by moving it towards the ball or touching it when it causes their body to appear abnormally larger.”
When a player’s hand or arm is neither a natural result of their body movement or justified by it in that particular scenario, it is deemed that the player has grown their body unnaturally larger. The athlete runs the danger of getting penalized if the ball hits their hand or arm when they are in this posture.